Paul Wm. Hoefert: 2025 candidate for Mount Prospect Mayor

Bio

Office Sought: Mount Prospect Mayor

City: Mount Prospect

Age: 69

Occupation: Former senior financial services executive

Previous offices held: Mayor since 2021; village trustee (for 30 years)

Why are you running for this office? Is there a particular issue that motivates you? Also, what makes you the best candidate for the position?

I serve solely out of “love” of community.” During my time as mayor, the village has been on a tremendous “Journey of Progress.” However, there is so much more that we can and need to do and as mayor, I will continue to lead our village forward on that “Journey.”

During my time as mayor, we have experienced unprecedented growth and development. In addition, the village's property tax levy is down and vehicle stickers have been eliminated. Specifically, I am running for reelection to continue to champion our focus on “Citizen Safety,” protecting our residential neighborhoods, promoting sustainability, maintaining our fiscal responsibility and the careful spending of our tax dollars, and continuing down the path of growth and development.

I am uniquely qualified for the role of mayor given my deep experience and my skill set related to municipal governance gained during my 34 years on the village board. As mayor I will continue to drive our village forward to new heights and keep our extremely positive “momentum and prosperity” going during the next 4 years.

What is the most serious issue your community will face in coming years and how should leaders respond to it?

The village has been on a very positive upward trajectory of development and growth in the past 4 years generating significant new tax revenues with which to operate the village as well as reduce our reliance on property taxes. To this point, the village's portion of the tax levy is down 11% in the past 2 years.

I believe one of the more serious issues we may have is finding ways to keep our positive momentum going in the coming years. Development in our downtown is “off the charts” with eight new residential buildings completed or under construction. We also five new restaurants opened in 2024 alone. In South Mount Prospect, we have a number of significant new commercial buildings under construction or newly built. South Mount Prospect is poised for additional new development. Overall, Mount Prospect is the “Land of Opportunity.”

We, as leaders, must continue to support development-friendly policies and provide incentives, when necessary to keep development occurring and investment capital flowing. We also need to continue to create ongoing awareness with the development community and entrepreneurs regarding development and business opportunities in Mount Prospect.

How would you describe the state of your community's finances? What should be the top priorities for spending during the next few years? Are there areas of spending that need to be curtailed?

Bottom line, the Village of Mount Prospect's financial condition is extremely strong. Frankly, the village's financial condition has never been stronger. Our financial position is so strong that I believe the village may move from our current AA+ credit rating to a AAA rating during 2025.

The top priority for spending is Citizen Safety which I believe is absolutely Priority #1. Spending on police, fire, and paramedic services is paramount to keep our citizens safe. When someone needs police, fire, or paramedics to respond, there is nothing more important and there can be no compromise. I am living proof. In addition, we will spend on basic services, critical existing infrastructure maintenance, critical new infrastructure improvements, Human Services, and other various “quality of life” initiatives which help maintain our strong property values to keep Mount Prospect a desirable community where people want to live, work, do business, and raise their families.

What do you see as the most important infrastructure project you must address? Why and how should it be paid for? Conversely, during these uncertain economic times, what project(s) can be put on the back burner?

The high-volume intersection located where Rand Road, Route 83, and Kensington Road cross is one of the busiest intersections in the Northwest suburbs. It is also one of the most difficult and time consuming to traverse.

The proposed improvements to this intersection are literally on the engineering drawing boards and we hopefully will be ready to be constructed in 2026. Working with the state and federal governments, the village must remain vigilant and laser-focused on seeing these improvements through to completion. These improvements are slated to be paid for in large part by state and federal funds.

We recently addressed another major intersection bottleneck at Rand Road, Central Road, and Mount Prospect Road. The improvements to this intersection were completed in 2024 and have had a dramatically positive impact on traffic flow.

In general, the village has consistently stayed on top of and ahead of infrastructure improvements. However, as part of our Capital Improvement Plan, public works maintains a list of projects in priority order. During difficult economic times we have and will cut projects which are less of a priority.

Describe your leadership style and explain how you think it will be effective in producing effective actions and decisions with your village board or city council.

I am a very open, approachable, and forthright leader with a well-known common sense approach. While I am flexible and contemporary in my thought, I am also consistent. As a leader, I believe it is critical to receive citizen feedback on important issues. Finally, I see myself as “servant leader” willing to give of myself to continually improve our village, to help our village remain strong and desirable, to produce growth in the village, and to ensure that we are providing our citizens with the things they want and need from their village.

I am well respected by my fellow board members because I am very interested to hear their differing viewpoints and thoughts on various issues under discussion. After all, it is “diversity of thought” that ultimately leads to the best decisions and courses of action.

What’s one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?

The Community Connections Center (CCC) in South Mount Prospect was established 15 years ago to bring village and library resources to the citizens of South Mount Prospect. Having the CCC in place helps overcome language and transportation barriers, as well. The CCC gives South Mount Prospect residents who may have difficulty getting to village hall and the library access to services closer to their homes. The village is currently conducting a needs assessment and survey to understand how we might better serve these residents of South Mount Prospect, going forward.

No one is talking about the idea that we may need another Community Connections Center to serve citizens of North Mount Prospect who need these same services and may have the same transportation difficulties and language barriers as the citizens in South Mount Prospect. I would propose that the village begin to do the research to understand the needs of the citizens in North Mount Prospect and how the village might better serve these citizens with a Community Connections Center nearer their homes in North Mount Prospect, as well.